


Adventure Within

by nightfurious



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Gen, Tags to be added, but just the concept of spirit evolution, everything is tentative atm, mixed sub/dub terminology, oh boy it's another 02/frontier fic, ships will likely be only heavily hinted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21542149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightfurious/pseuds/nightfurious
Summary: Two harsh beeps sliced through the air, cold as ice and sharp as a knife, and T.K. felt his heart stop.-Twin distress calls send the DigiDestined careening back into the Digital World, but it is not the same as they once knew. Lost and alone, six children must struggle to find first their partners, then themselves.
Relationships: Ichijouji Ken/Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya, Ichijouji Ken/Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya/Takaishi Takeru | T.K. Takaishi, Inoue Miyako | Yolei Inoue/Yagami Hikari | Kari Kamiya, Takaishi Takeru | T.K. Takaishi & Yagami Hikari | Kari Kamiya
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello everyone!
> 
> this fic is a huge work in progress atm. i'm posting this in the hopes that having it here will inspire me to continue writing more and more of it.
> 
> english dub names are used to help me keep them in character. other terminology (like jogress vs dna digivolution) is mixed from both sources.

Two harsh beeps sliced through the air, cold as ice and sharp as a knife, and T.K. felt his heart stop.

A beat of silence passed. Maybe he was wrong, maybe it hadn’t come from his bag; maybe everything was not about to fall apart.

Two more beeps. They somehow sounded louder than the first.

T.K. glanced at Kari, who was already looking at him, for only a second before he shoved his hands frantically into his backpack. As the beeps sounded again, he finally found the culprit, and suddenly he felt nauseous.

“Takaishi. Please silence your cell phone.”

His head snapped up to meet his teacher’s gaze. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out; he swallowed and tried again. “Sir, it’s an emergency. May I be excused?”

His teacher watched him critically. T.K.’s head swam.

“Fine. Bring a pass when you come back.”

T.K. was already out of the room by the time he finished speaking, ignoring the class’s stares, trying to pretend he didn’t notice Kari and Davis exchanging concerned glances. His only thought was of the device in his hand, its screen flashing red text in a language he didn’t understand but could only mean one thing, and of how long it would take to reach the computer lab, if anyone was currently using it, how he could conduct a rescue mission alone, how he was even going to _find_ him, what kind of trouble he could be in, and what if he was too late. He reached up and slapped his own temple at the last thought. He would _not_ be too late. He broke into a run.

It had been less than a year. Less than one measly year since they had destroyed MaloMyotismon, since T.K. had seen Patamon, and they had all thought they would be safe. At the very least, they all hoped for a few years of peace, for the Digimon to have time to recover from the last war. Initially, the DigiDestined had agreed to be there to help rebuild, but only a few months after MaloMyotismon fell, the gates closed. No one knew why. Until now, they had received no word from the Digital World whatsoever. And the first message they received was a distress call.

T.K. almost forgot to pay attention to where he was going. He thought he heard someone call his name, but ignored it, at least until something yanked him backwards by his arm. He blinked once and spun to face the newcomer. But she wasn’t looking at him. Her eyes were fixed on his other hand.

“T.K. What’s going on?”

“Yolei, I have to go.” He held up his digivice, which beeped at them impatiently. “Patamon needs me.”

“What?” Yolei’s eyes widened. “You can’t. Not alone. T.K., this is the first we’ve heard from them in months. We have no idea what the Digital World is like right now, you could be killed.”

T.K. gritted his teeth and tried to pull his arm away from her, but her grip only tightened. “So could Patamon! We don’t have any time to waste!” His voice rose uncontrollably. Another student down the hall turned to watch them curiously. He ignored them.

Yolei’s face crinkled in thought, and she glanced at the clock. T.K. knew there was more than half of the school day left, so no help would be coming from the others. “I’ll come with you,” she said finally, releasing him. He nodded, and the two of them dashed toward the computer lab.

As Yolei began punching in the code to open the gate, T.K. clutched his digivice so hard it cut into his hand. As if in response, it offered two more beeps. He thought of Patamon, and how he could be out there all alone, battered and unable to defend himself, and he felt sick. He wondered how the other DigiDestined had handled distress calls from their Digimon so well; he thought he might pass out, or explode, or both. Some rational part of him deep inside knew that Yolei was right. Going to the Digital World right now was dangerous, and there was a very real chance they would be hurt. Alone, he couldn’t defend himself. Grudgingly forcing himself to accept that fact, he pried his grip away from his digivice and tucked it in his pocket, exchanging it for his D-Terminal. The message was short and offered no explanation, but it would tell them something was up.

Behind him, the computer lab door flew open. T.K. jolted, nearly dropping his D-Terminal, but upon whipping around so fast his neck popped, the faces he saw filled him with relief.

There was no need for them to ask. T.K. pulled out his digivice and said simply, “Patamon needs our help.” Kari’s hands flew to her mouth; Davis scowled and turned to Yolei.

“How long until the gate is open?” he demanded.

Yolei exhaled through gritted teeth. “I’m not sure. The code is different than it was, and every time I try to fix something, it scrambles itself again.”

“Any idea how to contact Cody and Ken?” said T.K.

Davis blinked and scrambled for his phone. “I have Ken’s number,” he said, already dialing, “but since he’s in school, I doubt he’ll– Ken?”

On a different day, T.K. might have laughed. 

Instead, he turned to Kari, who shook her head at his unasked question. “Cody’s in school, and he wouldn’t check his phone during class.”

A few seconds later, Davis rejoined them. “Ken’s on his way. He saw your message.”

T.K. nodded in affirmation and turned to Yolei, but she hardly seemed to realize they were there anymore. He looked down at his digivice, still flashing the dreadful red text, and tried to force himself to breathe.

The computer lab door opened again, and T.K.’s head snapped over to face Cody, who was out of breath and abnormally pale. Wordlessly, Cody held up his digivice, and T.K. glanced back to his own, and the two beeped in unison, both glaring heart-stopping red. T.K. really thought he might pass out.

The time passed in agony. It felt like it must have been hours, but according to the clock, it was less than thirty minutes. The others tried to help calm his nerves, including Cody, but it had no effect. He knew the longer they waited, the more danger Patamon and Armadillomon would be in. He refused to let that happen, but from the other side of the gate, there was nothing he could do.

“I got it!” Yolei’s chair flew behind her as she stood up.

T.K. felt like he could breathe again.

“Where’s Ken?” Davis said quickly.

“I’m here!” Once again, the door opened, and Ken rushed inside. T.K. barely spared him a glance before turning to the gate, the words on the edge of his tongue.

And then his digivice powered off.

The red text vanished. He found himself willing the device to beep again, but it never came.

His mind went blank. He forced himself not to think of what that might mean, forced himself to focus on the feeling of the device in his hand, no matter how cold he felt.

He looked at Cody, whose eyes were wide, who now held another silent digivice in his hand.

He could feel the others looking at him. The tension was so sharp it felt like it was slicing him open.

A growl manifested deep in his throat. He thrust his digivice toward the gate. “Digi-Port open!”

There was an affirmative beep. The gate opened.

_I’m coming, Patamon. Hold on a little longer._

//

It was quiet.

Patamon wished it weren’t so quiet. He wished there was some sort of noise, anything, even if it were the footsteps they had so desperately outrun, anything to drown out his thoughts, because his thoughts were full of T.K., and with T.K. came hope, and there was none of that left. It had been too long; Patamon couldn’t count the days, the years since he had last seen his partner. Something had gone wrong, he knew, because if everything had gone according to plan, they wouldn’t be here, and he wouldn’t feel the end approaching.

It was too dark for him to see, but he heard Gatomon sigh. “They haven’t lost us,” she said, her voice almost too quiet to hear. “I don’t see anything, but they can’t be far behind. We need to move.”

“Wouldn’t that just draw their attention?” Armadillomon’s voice came from somewhere to his right. Patamon had never heard him so tense.

Gatomon was silent a beat too long.

“There isn’t anything we can do to avoid it,” she said finally. “They’ve been on our tails for months. If we were going to lose them, we would have done it by now. We just have to keep moving.”

Patamon shivered and squeezed his eyes shut. “This really is it, isn’t it?”

“Patamon, don’t think like that.” Armadillomon said something else, but Patamon covered his face with his paws. He thought of the two next to him, how they were trapped like rats, and he thought of the three who should have been there with them. Veemon and Wormmon were the first to go, and Hawkmon later sacrificed himself so the others could keep running. Patamon didn’t know where they were or what happened to them. He didn’t want to think about it. He was so, so afraid.

So instead he thought of T.K. and of the light that the three of them hadn’t seen in years.

The ground beneath their feet trembled. Patamon opened his eyes, and he knew something was wrong when he realized he could see Gatomon and Armadillomon. He knew something was horribly, awfully wrong as their eyes slowly filled with realization and fear and all the while, the ground never stopped shaking. Fear almost froze him in place but he swallowed hard and pushed himself into the air. The three of them looked at each other and nodded before dashing off.

They broke out of their makeshift hiding hole into the forest and dodged away from the horde of cloaked, torch-bearing Digimon, never once slowing their stride, well aware of what the consequences of hesitation were. The horde let out an ear-piercing scream all at once and raced after them. Their footsteps shook the ground, but the tremors were nothing compared to those earlier, and Patamon realized this with a start. They must have someone else with them. He couldn’t remember if they had ever brought along help before, and he had no idea who it could be.

The answer was made clear almost immediately as a sickeningly familiar Digimon dropped down in front of them. Patamon glanced up into the face of Paildramon and his body flooded with relief, hope, but it fell away not a second later, replaced by pure horror.

Below him, Gatomon and Armadillomon skidded to an unsteady stop. “P– Paildramon?” whispered Gatomon, her voice full of disbelief.

“We have to go. Now,” said Armadillomon.

The three made a break to the left just before Paildramon’s fist came crashing down to the ground they had just vacated. Patamon could hardly focus on where he was going, where the horde was, how many hits they dodged, just trying to keep Armadillomon and Gatomon in his sight. He felt numb.

“Why are they here? How did they DNA Digivolve?” he said weakly.

“I don’t know,” Gatomon hissed. “Have they become slaves? What master is powerful enough to control a Digimon of that level?”

A torch sailed over their heads and landed in the underbrush. The fire spread almost immediately, and Gatomon dove to the side, forging a path around it. Patamon and Armadillomon followed without question.

Armadillomon suddenly yelped and vanished from Patamon’s view. He whipped around, fully expecting to find that the horde or Paildramon had caught up to them, only to realize with a burst of panic that Armadillomon’s leg was trapped in a mess of fallen tree branches and the fire was only a few feet away. No matter how he struggled, his leg was pinned, and with each movement his expression twisted with pain. Patamon loosed a Boom Bubble to clear the branches; Armadillomon stood and nodded to him, but the moment he tried to walk, his leg buckled.

“Patamon, go,” he said quickly. “I can’t keep up like this. You and Gatomon have to get to safety.”

Patamon looked from Armadillomon, to Gatomon, to the approaching horde and Paildramon, and back to Armadillomon, and made up his mind.

A calm fell over him that he hadn’t felt in months. He alighted next to Armadillomon, whose eyes filled with panic. Before his companion could speak, Patamon declared, “I won’t leave.”

The horde continued to grow closer. Patamon could no longer hear Paildramon’s footsteps. He couldn’t decide if that was a good sign or bad.

Behind them, Gatomon screamed.

Patamon whipped around to find her in the grip of an unfamiliar Digimon, which was dark, muddy, and couldn’t have been larger than a human. Patamon’s mind screeched to a halt and the calm vanished.

“ _Boom Bubble!_ ” he shouted, aiming for the Digimon, but Paildramon appeared faster than he thought possible, taking the attack instead.

“Gatomon!” Armadillomon yelled, taking a few steps toward her before tripping over himself. 

Gatomon struggled in the Digimon’s grip, but it touched its other hand to her forehead and her movements froze. Her eyes closed and reopened with a haze in them. Patamon felt dizzy.

The Digimon dropped her and she landed neatly on her feet, looking totally normal except for her eyes. Then the Digimon turned its gaze to Patamon and Armadillomon.

Patamon’s blood ran cold.

“ _B_ _oom Bubble! Boom Bubble! Boom Bubble!_ ”

Paildramon continued to block him, and somewhere in the back of Patamon’s mind he wondered why he wasn’t attacking back. 

Suddenly he felt something grab him by his wings, something cold and wet and tight and no matter how Patamon wriggled he couldn’t loosen its grip. He met the Digimon’s eyes just as its fingers met his forehead.

Something cold trickled down Patamon’s back, and everything went quiet again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new world, a new acquaintance, and a new power. What could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was planning to wait until i finished the third chapter to upload this, but since most of my effort is being directed to a different project i decided to go ahead and give a little more to go off of than just that first chapter. i won't give up on this fic even if i don't have time to work on it for a short while, and after my other project is done i'll get back to this full-time.
> 
> i hope you enjoy!

They landed on sand. 

T.K. fell through the portal onto his feet but lost his balance almost immediately, especially when the others piled through behind him. He sat up quickly and spat sand out of his mouth before looking around.

They were on a beach. He didn’t recognize it, although the idea that Patamon would have ended up on the beach at File Island seemed like a stretch, anyway. On his left was a forest with towering trees, the canopy so thick he could only see darkness under them. The sun was only just rising, painting the air orange, which he found odd. Usually, when they traveled to the Digital World, it was the same time of day as the human world. There were no Digimon around; in fact, the air was heavy with a silence that felt out of place. T.K. felt dread pool in the pit of his stomach and he wasn’t sure why.

Beside him, Cody stood and dusted himself off. The jogress duo looked at each other and nodded before turning to face the others.

“Yolei, these are the coordinates where Patamon and Armadillomon’s distress signals were coming from, right?” said Cody.

“From what I could tell, it was around here. It was hard to be sure with the data so scrambled.” Yolei growled and turned her head to face Davis, who was draped across her back, rubbing his head. “Get – _off_ – me!” She accented her words with a punch.

“Let’s start walking the beach,” said T.K. “If we split up, we can cover more ground.”

“We have no Digimon with us,” Kari pointed out. “If we split up, we would be in more danger than we already are. I say we stay together.”

“I agree,” said Yolei. Davis nodded along.

T.K. felt his panic flare again – what if they went the wrong way, what if Patamon and Armadillomon were on the other side and they couldn’t find them? – and suppressed it. “Alright then. This way.”

As they walked, T.K. held his digivice close. It had not made a noise since the distress signal vanished, but he forced himself to remain hopeful that it would flare back to life. Maybe it would somehow, miraculously, show him the exact way to Patamon. One glance to his left showed that Cody was doing the same. But of course, neither digivice showed them anything but a dark screen. T.K. clenched his teeth in frustration and tightened his grip on the device.

“Huh? Guys!” Davis said from behind him. “What’s that over there?”

T.K. followed his gaze quickly with one flash of the thought that it might be Patamon and a sinking feeling when he found it wasn’t. He was not expecting to see a small hut built into the sand near the edge of a forest, a smoldering fire just outside the door. “It looks like a Digimon’s home,” said Kari.

“Well, maybe they can help us!” Davis grinned and started making his way toward it.

“Davis – Davis, stop, we don’t have time for this!” snapped T.K. “We need to keep looking.”

“We don’t even know what we’re looking for, T.J.! If there’s a Digimon who lives in here maybe he can help us!”

“You know, he does have a point,” said Ken. T.K. knew it, but he really didn’t want to hear it. Clenching his teeth, he followed the others as they started after Davis.

They were still several paces away when a voice shouted from inside. “Stop! Stop right there! Don’t – just leave me alone!”

They froze, and Yolei whispered, “Was that meant for us?” Cody shrugged.

“We aren’t here to hurt you!” Davis called. “We’re looking for our friends, we were wondering if you’d seen anything!”

The hut was silent for a few seconds, but slowly a Digimon began to move into the light. He looked like an ocean crab, but a hermit crab’s shell was held to his back with leather straps. Upon seeing the six of them, the Digimon’s eyes widened. “Are you… Are you humans?”

“Uh…” Davis blinked. “Yeah.”

The Digimon stared at them each in turn, his mouth opening and closing. “We haven’t seen humans here for hundreds of years. Could you be – are you the DigiDestined?”

His words seemed to press all the air from T.K.’s lungs. “Hundreds of years?” He took a step forward. “How long ago was it that the gates closed?”

“The… gates?” The Digimon cowered back in the doorway, shaking his head. “I don’t…” He glanced away from them, shook himself, and looked back, making direct eye contact with T.K. “I don’t know if I can help you, but if you truly are the DigiDestined, could you help my village?”

“Your village?” said Davis. 

Kari took a step forward. “What happened?”

“It was attacked. There was no way… We didn’t stand a chance. But I think there were survivors other than myself, and I can’t check on my own.”

“We don’t have any of our partner Digimon with us, but…” Kari glanced at the two next to her. T.K. met her gaze and opened his mouth to protest, but she reached up and pinched his arm. He gritted his teeth. If it were Gatomon missing, she would be just as desperate as he was; why couldn’t they just continue their search?

“Of course we’ll help!” Davis grinned. “Just point us in the right direction!”

The Digimon seemed to visibly brighten and dashed toward them. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! My name is Hermitmon,” he added. “Please, follow me!”

They set off down the beach in the same direction they had been walking before. Davis and Kari took the lead this time, and T.K. fell into step beside Ken.

“Is this a good idea?” Yolei said quietly from behind them. “I mean, our Digimon aren’t here. How could we help them? What if something happens, how will we defend ourselves?”

“And shouldn’t we be looking for our partners?” said Cody, his voice tight. T.K.’s heart skipped a beat, the image of Patamon leaping to the forefront of his mind again, and his fist clenched around his digivice. Ken glanced down at T.K.’s hand.

“We’ll find them,” he said after a moment. T.K. turned to him at the same time he turned to face forward. “We have to.”

He didn’t respond. They were in agreement.

“We’re almost there!” called Hermitmon. Facing forward again, T.K. noticed what looked like smoke in the distance.

As it turned out, that was exactly what it was. It was a fairly small village, only around twenty buildings, but they were all leveled. Some were missing all four walls; others had collapsed in on themselves. Debris was scattered through the streets, making it difficult to navigate. T.K. felt himself go numb at the damage. The last time they had seen anything of this scale was Kimeramon, and since he was gone, T.K. had no idea what could have done something like this. It didn’t seem possible that anything had survived. 

“What… what did this?” breathed Yolei.

Hermitmon shook his head sadly, shifting some debris to the side with his claws. “I never saw it. I don’t know.”

Davis stepped forward, the first of the six humans to move, and T.K. and the others quickly followed suit, helping Hermitmon search through houses for anything that might have been left behind. T.K. doubted they would find anything – and after searching a few buildings on his own with no luck, he was almost sure of it – but he decided to humor Hermitmon, trying valiantly to keep his hopes up.

T.K. moved on to one of the homes closest to the ocean, which was missing two walls. He pushed away parts of the ceiling until he could make out what was below, something that looked to be a table of sorts. On top of it was a book, lying open with the pages facing down. He picked it up gingerly and turned it over. The pages were still intact, and from the looks of it, it was a history book of some sort, or at least something that seemed important. He closed it and was about to call for Hermitmon when the sea caught his eye.

Something in his gut turned and for a second, he almost interpreted that to mean something was wrong. But no, that wasn’t it, this wasn’t the usual feeling of impending doom. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Something was _there_. But he couldn’t tell whether it was good or bad. And it almost felt like it was pulling him there.

“Yo, T.K.! What are you doing?”

T.K. blinked and looked around. He was several strides away from the house now, closer to the water. He didn’t remember having walked the distance. His mind leapt into a whirlwind – When did he move? Why hadn’t he realized it? – but he swallowed hard, trying to repress the dread that felt like fire eating his mind. He turned to Davis, who had yelled, and held up the book, starting back toward the village. He opened his mouth, about to tell him about it, when behind him, the ocean exploded.

The shock was great enough that it knocked him off his feet onto his face, and the book slipped from his hands as he fell. He rolled over just in time to dodge a massive claw that struck the ground right where he had been and glanced up to meet the eye of something massive. His mind quickly registered it as an Ebidramon. A very angry-looking Ebidramon. His stomach sank.

Behind him, Kari shouted desperately, and the sound snapped T.K. into action. He scrambled to his feet and began a mad dash toward the ruined village, his feet slipping in the sand, almost causing him to fall on his face again. The others were taking shelter between two of the houses, and he dove after them just as the ground trembled again.

“T.K.! Are you okay?” Kari screamed.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” T.K. collapsed against the wall, his heart pounding against his ribs. Somewhere outside, the Ebidramon loosed a furious roar. “What are we supposed to do? We can’t fight that thing alone!”

“We have to get out of here,” Ken said quickly. “If we stay, we’ll be killed.”

“There’s no way _to_ get out of here, it’ll kill us!” Yolei cried.

“We only have one choice, let’s try to fight it!” said Davis.

“Did you miss what I just said? We’ll die!” said Yolei.

Something exploded outside. T.K. flinched hard as some of the others yelped.

“What is it even attacking for?” said Kari.

“It’s probably just hungry,” said Hermitmon. “Many Digimon these days are starved and will do anything for food.”

“But why us?” hissed Cody.

Davis twisted to see around the corner. Only a second later, Ebidramon’s bellows echoed through the air and Davis ducked back against the wall. “It’s just hanging out near the water,” he reported, “so if we run toward the forest, we’ll probably be able to get away.”

The seven of them glanced at each other and nodded. It sounded like the best shot they had, though T.K. couldn’t help thinking it wouldn’t work. His mind raced with a thousand ways it could go wrong, but before he could start to worry Davis shouted, “Let’s go!” and darted into the open. The others quickly followed, Hermitmon held to Kari’s chest. T.K., still out of breath, leapt out last.

They only made it a few steps. T.K. felt the ground trembling, sensed the attack coming before Ebidramon could announce it, and he screamed, “Everyone take cover!”

“ _Twin Scissors!_ ” Ebidramon hissed. The attack whistled through the air over T.K., and he dove to the ground to dodge the pincers. He pushed himself back up almost immediately and caught sight of Kari, Cody, and Hermitmon huddled behind one of the houses, staring back at him fearfully. He started toward them, heart pounding, just wishing for this to be over.

But then he saw Ebidramon’s claws swinging again, this time not directed at him, but those before him. They were too busy shouting his name to notice, but even if they had heard, the battered house next to them was too tall for them to see over. T.K.’s mind ground to a halt for one brief second, and one thought rang through his head.

_I won’t let them get hurt._

“Move!” he shouted, and they looked up, but it was too late to run. One of Ebidramon’s claws knocked aside the remainder of the house, clearing the way, and the other moved to close around its victims, and T.K. put on one final burst of speed, just enough to shove the three of them out of the way, just in time. 

The pincer snapped shut around his midsection.

He cried out and gripped at the scales crushing his gut before it lifted him into the air. Kari screamed, and from somewhere else, he thought he heard Yolei, too, and someone else that sounded like Davis. Ebidramon brought T.K. to eye level and glared at him, and T.K. thought that if it could smile, that was certainly what it was doing. _I’m going to be its breakfast,_ he realized, head swimming with pain, _but at least it wasn’t them. They’re safe. Right?_

He chanced one look down to make sure. Ebidramon followed his gaze, and his heart skipped a beat, and he shouted, “Run!” But Ebidramon didn’t seem interested. It pushed off of the ground backwards, and T.K. gulped in one last breath before he was underwater.

Ebidramon yanked him down at terrifying speed. T.K. couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, couldn’t breathe, could only think of the horrified faces of his friends that he would never see again. His hope drained away with every second. His air was quickly running out, his lungs burned, but he knew he wouldn’t returning to the surface anytime soon. _This is it,_ he thought. _Patamon… I’m sorry._

Suddenly a bright light overtook his vision. He heard Ebidramon screech and felt himself get thrown even deeper, but he landed on solid ground in what seemed to be an air pocket, and he didn’t even question it, sucking the air desperately into his lungs. When he finally looked up, it was to see himself surrounded in a cylindrical area of white light on the bottom of the ocean, Ebidramon staring at him hungrily from the outside. T.K. blinked once, then twice.

Well, this didn’t make any sense.

The light grew brighter and gathered into one spot in front of T.K., and it began to form a shape. It looked like a figurine, some sort of crouched action figure with sparkling armor, but he had never seen anything like this before. But suddenly, the moment it was complete, the sense of familiarity was overwhelming. He had never seen it before, but he knew, this was the _something_ , this thing had been calling to him from the shore.

“What are you?” he coughed, pushing himself into a standing position, holding his arms around his midsection. He didn’t get a verbal answer, but he was overcome with waves of serenity, and in spite of himself, he felt like he could trust this thing. He gritted his teeth, repressing the feeling. “Can you help me save the others? Can you help me find Patamon?”

He was hit by waves of calm so fiercely it almost made him collapse, and even without verbal confirmation, he knew. _Yes._

His mind made up, he looked at it and nodded.

“What do I do?”

//

“No! T.K.!”

“Kari! Stop, you have to back up, it could come back and take you, too!” Davis yelled, trying to hold her back by her hand. On any other day, in any other situation, the contact would have made him ecstatic. Right now, he couldn’t feel anything.

“Davis, let me go! I have to get to him! We have to save him!”

“We will! But not you, you’ll get killed!”

“Ebidramon… He’s… This can’t be happening…” Yolei whispered from behind them.

“No!” Kari screamed, falling to her knees, her hand still in Davis’s, tears streaming freely down her cheeks. “No, this can’t be… T.K.!”

Davis could hardly believe it. On another day, he would’ve been angry that T.K. had been the one to save Kari. He would’ve wanted the attention himself, wanted it to be him that she looked at, but not like this. Never like this.

He couldn’t bring himself to say that T.K. was gone. There was just no way. That couldn’t have happened. Any second now, he would come back to the surface, talking about how he had taken down Ebidramon on his own, and he would make Davis jealous, of course, but he would be alive. He wouldn’t be gone. He couldn’t be gone.

Ebidramon’s attack had left him completely numb. He was used to fighting Digimon by now, but he didn’t have Veemon here. He was as good as useless without him, too; even his desperate plan, the one he had made just trying to keep everyone safe, had failed in the worst way possible. He couldn’t fight back, and without that, there was nothing he could do. And because of that, they’d lost T.K. 

_He’d lost T.K._

He limply released Kari’s hand, and she made no move to stand, only cupping her face in both hands and continuing to sob. Davis took a few steps forward despite having told Kari not to only seconds ago. He heard Ken’s voice of reason behind him, warning him, and listened, stopping. 

Then he saw something.

“Uh, guys?” he said slowly. “There’s something out there.”

Cody stepped up next to him, staring intently at the water. “Is that… light?”

The ocean water began to churn, radiating outward from where there was a bright circle of light on the surface. The light quickly faded and vanished, but the waves kept growing. Davis’s eyes widened, his mind shifting into overdrive, and he turned the others quickly and shouted, “Everyone get back!”

Yolei dashed forward and pulled a dazed Kari to her feet, and everyone ducked behind one of the remaining buildings just as the ocean’s surface exploded for the second time that day. He heard Ebidramon roar and his heart stopped, but then he heard something else. Someone else’s voice. Something was fighting it.

He whipped his head around the corner. It was Ebidramon, alright, but there was another Digimon that he didn’t recognize. It was humanoid, clad in armor that seemed to swirl as if it were made of water, two twin sword sheaths on its back, one of the swords in its hand. It was facing away from Davis, but something about the Digimon struck a chord in him. Something seemed familiar. He didn’t like it.

Ebidramon screeched into the Digimon’s face and lashed out with its claws, but the Digimon leapt gracefully out of the way, slashing down into one of the claws with its sword. Ebidramon yelled in pain and anger and dove at the Digimon again.

“Davis, what’s happening?” hissed Yolei.

“There’s another Digimon,” he whispered, entranced. “They’re fighting.”

“Another Digimon? What is it?” said Cody.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The Digimon sheathed its sword and grabbed something off of its belt that looked like a handle of some sort. It swung it toward the ground and a fierce whip made entirely of water materialized from the handle. The Digimon snapped the whip around Ebidramon’s neck and after a brief struggle, flung it into one of the houses opposite Davis and the others. Ebidramon resurfaced, looking positively livid, and made eye contact with Davis. It glanced from him to the others behind him, snarling and looking very hungry and very angry.

Davis panicked.

He grabbed the closest thing to him, which turned out to be a small, charred plank of wood, and threw it at Ebidramon before dashing away from the others. “Hey, ugly!” he shouted. “Over here, come and get me!”

He heard the others scream, but he had Ebidramon’s attention, and that was the important thing. Ebidramon swung at him almost immediately and hit Davis in the chest with the back of his claw, sending him flying several feet. Winded and dizzy, he almost didn’t notice Ebidramon about to attack him again, but suddenly the other Digimon was in front of him, almost twice his height, and Ebidramon’s pincers slammed into the armor on the Digimon’s forearm. 

“Don’t get involved. Get out of here!” the Digimon yelled.

Davis froze in place. _His voice._

Without waiting, the Digimon threw Ebidramon off, and it landed back on the other side of the village, away from the other DigiDestined. Its opponent quickly gave chase. Davis couldn’t tear his eyes off of the Digimon, his mind reeling. _His voice._ It was familiar. He knew exactly why, yet it didn’t make sense. He couldn’t make it make sense.

“Davis!” Ken skidded to a stop next to him, quickly followed by the others. “Davis, what were you thinking, you could have gotten seriously hurt, or–”

“It’s T.K.,” Davis said slowly.

Kari’s hands flew to her mouth. Ken stopped abruptly.

“That Digimon,” Davis continued, his voice rising. “I heard him. It’s T.K.!”

Ebidramon quickly righted itself from where its back had collided with a house and roared furiously at the foreign Digimon, which did not flinch. Instead it snapped its whip at the ground behind it and shouted, “ _Hydraulic Chain!_ ”

It swung the whip to wrap around Ebidramon and pulled it tight. The water connected to itself and widened around Ebidramon’s midsection, and chains of water shot out from the binding to hold fast to the ground on all sides of Ebidramon. The other Digimon tucked the whip handle back on its belt and whipped out both swords, crossing them over its chest. “ _Dual Impulse!_ ”

It swung both swords in the shape of an X, and two beams of energy shot from each and collided hard with Ebidramon. The captured Digimon gave one final cry of anger before dissolving into tiny pieces of data.

Yolei gasped loudly. 

Just like that, the battle was over. 

Without hesitating, Davis scrambled to his feet and shouted, “T.K.!”

The Digimon started and turned to face them. It was the first time Davis had seen it from the front, and he gaped. The Digimon wore a silver helmet that almost looked like an overturned pot, its eyes obscured. But even so, something about it was so horribly, strikingly familiar, that there was no doubt in Davis’s mind. It was T.K. It was him, yet it wasn’t. 

Suddenly the Digimon was surrounded in strips of data that Davis had never seen before, cocooning around it and shrinking to around Davis’s height. The data disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and a wonderfully familiar human form was left behind.

“T.K.!”

Kari broke into a run immediately, Davis hot on her heels and he heard the others fall in behind them. T.K.’s eyes were closed, and he wobbled unsteadily on his feet before pitching forward, catching himself on his forearms. Davis dropped to the ground beside him, Kari on the other side, sobbing. “T.K.! T.K., what happened?!” he demanded.

T.K. didn’t respond. He was breathing heavily and Davis realized with a start that he was trembling. Finally, he said, “I– I don’t know. I was at the bottom of the ocean, and this thing saved me. I…”

“You turned into a Digimon.”

Everyone turned to face Hermitmon, who was staring at T.K. in awe. 

“You know about this?” T.K. demanded.

Hermitmon shook his head. “Only from legends. They say that, millennia ago, there was a group of powerful Digimon who protected the Digital World. They transformed their power into spirits, and it was prophesied that one day, a group of humans would come who could harness the power of those spirits. I had never believed it to be true, but… T.K. may have discovered one of the spirits of the ancient Digimon.”

“A power that ancient?” Cody frowned. “How did T.K. find it?”

“No, that’s not…” T.K. paused, panting, and looked down at something in his hand. “That’s not what happened. Whatever this thing is, I didn’t just run into it by chance. It chose me.”

Davis followed T.K.’s gaze and found that he was holding something similar to a digivice, but it was completely different from their D-3s. It was both longer and wider, looking more like a rectangle than an oval, but it had the same screen. The grip was still green, albeit much darker, and the center was a dull, metallic gray.

“I could feel it calling to me,” he continued. “From the shore. It was like it was pulling me in.”

Hermitmon frowned and moved one of his claws to his chin in thought. “I suppose… it is possible that you were chosen. But I don’t see how the ancient Digimon could have chosen their human hosts so far in advance, or perhaps the spirits are somehow sentient, and it chose you when it sensed you here. Even then, it seems like a convenient coincidence that the spirit that chose T.K. happened to be at the bottom of the ocean when he was dragged down there…”

His voice slowly faded to a low mutter, but Davis had barely heard a word he said, anyway.

“Chosen, huh?” He slowly pushed himself to his feet, everyone except Hermitmon turning to face him. “But we were already chosen.”

“I guess we have more work to do,” said Ken. He sounded unconcerned, but Davis knew better. 

“If we were chosen again, that means more danger, right?” said Yolei, her gaze falling to the ground. “I’m getting really worried. We haven’t found Patamon and Armadillomon, and still no word from any of our other Digimon. Hawkmon…”

Kari reached up and squeezed her hand. Yolei looked down at her and smiled, her eyes watery.

“I don’t get it,” T.K. said suddenly. “Why us again? We already did our duties, didn’t we? Why wouldn’t the Digital World just choose different DigiDestined?”

Davis frowned. “What, do you have a problem with saving the world again?”

“No, of course not, Davis, but–”

“–Terminal!”

Davis jumped and turned to face Hermitmon, whose eyes were blown wide like he’d just had the greatest idea ever. 

“I know where we have to go!” the Digimon said in a rush. “We’ll need supplies, and it’s about a three days’ trip from here, but that’s okay, right? Humans can make it that far?”

“Hold on, a three days’ trip? We can’t stay here in the Digital World for that long,” said Yolei, her voice pitching upward. “And we left in the middle of class, too. We’ve probably been here too long already.”

“Maybe the others can cover for us again,” Cody suggested.

“But how can we contact them? They’re in school, too.” Kari pulled out her D-Terminal despite her words and opened it, but her grimace showed there had been no response.

“Ah, does it really matter?” Davis shot to his feet, overflowing with tension he hadn’t realized had built up. He clenched his fists tightly, brandishing them as if ready for a fight. “We have to stay! We still haven’t found Patamon and Armadillomon, and we have to find Veemon and the others, too. I’m not going to leave them to fight whatever it is they’re fighting alone. We can’t leave while they’re still out there!” 

The others glanced at him in surprise, but no one argued. Davis heaved a breath and lowered his fists to his sides, but he felt no more relaxed. They had been in the same area for too long, he knew. Their missing partners obviously weren’t anywhere nearby. The destroyed village was giving him the creeps, and he still had no idea what to do with the news that T.K. had turned into a Digimon. He didn’t like any of this. Something was wrong, all of this felt horribly wrong, and they needed to find out what was happening as soon as they could. He didn’t want to wait any longer. He just had to get them to keep moving.

“I’m with Davis,” Ken said suddenly from beside him. Davis glanced at him in mild surprise, his face breaking out into a grin to return Ken’s own small smile. “This counts as an emergency. We have to figure out what’s going on and make sure our partners are safe before we think about going home.”

T.K. shifted on Davis’s other side. Kari leapt to help him stand, but he motioned that he was okay and she backed off. He pushed himself to his feet, shoving his strange new digivice into his pocket, and nodded to Davis. “I agree. Patamon and Armadillomon are our first priority. I don’t care how long we’re away from our world. We have to find them. Right, Cody?”

“Of course,” the youngest of them responded, offering a firm nod.

Kari stood up slowly and looked them over. Finally, she said, “You’re right. I feel the same, too, about Gatomon.”

All eyes switched to Yolei. She grinned widely, determination set in her every feature. “You know I’m in! So, where do we start?”

“Well,” said Hermitmon, clicking his claws together, “first things first! During the search earlier, did any of you happen to find a book?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A horrible discovery leads to a losing battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy new year, everyone! this chapter wasn't supposed to be this long, but, well, at least it's finally finished. please don't forget to comment if you liked it, and i hope everyone has a great 2020!

All things considered, it seemed like their current situation was as good as it could get, but Yolei wasn’t sure she liked the idea of following Hermitmon on some wild journey through the Digital World.

Sure, it had only been a few hours, but for one thing, Hermitmon hadn’t explained anything to them yet about the Digital World. They still had no idea what kind of battle they were getting into, how much time had passed since they last visited, or even where they were going, because the only living being here who would know any of that wouldn’t tell them. For that matter, Hermitmon obviously knew what had happened when T.K. turned into a Digimon, but he had yet to shed any light on that, either.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem the transformation had any long-lasting effects on T.K – so far, anyway. He was certainly testier than usual, but Yolei couldn’t blame him – as long as they were separated from their partners, she didn’t think any of them would be able to relax. But T.K. had at least put up with their questions about everything, even if they just led to more confusing answers.

The book Hermitmon had asked them about turned up buried in the sand near where Ebidramon first struck. T.K. had led them right to it, explaining that he had uncovered it in one of the shattered houses before the attack. Hermitmon had offered no explanation as to what the book was or why he wanted it, merely tucking it away before ordering them to follow him into the forest. Yolei hadn’t liked that. Why couldn’t this Digimon just try to communicate with them? They were here to save the world, after all.

So that was the main reason for Yolei’s unrest. The second, was that Hermitmon was walking really, really slow.

Sure, he was a small Digimon, but couldn’t he move _any_ faster? They had been moving at a snail’s pace for what felt like hours, and Yolei had far too much pent up anxiety firing through her veins to be taking such small steps. If he would just tell them where they were going, maybe they could pick him up like Kari had earlier – or better yet, leave him behind – and manage to get there within the next century. But he just kept moving along in front of them, muttering to himself every now and then without sparing a word for them, and they had no choice but to follow behind.

Her earlier determination had worn off by now. She knew she should be worried, and really, she was, but she was mostly just tired. After all they had done for the Digital World already, she couldn’t understand why they had been chosen again. Come to think of it, she didn’t understand if they had been chosen again. It sounded like they had, given what had happened with T.K., but the only other thing they had to base that conclusion off of was Hermitmon’s word. And frankly, she didn’t trust the little Digimon as far as she could throw him.

Well, actually, she could probably throw him pretty far. For a second, she found herself tempted to do so. But at any rate, she still didn’t trust him.

She found herself conflicted. She wanted to help the Digital World, of course, she could never turn her back on it if it decided it needed them again. But she didn’t feel any sort of excitement about being back. She kept wondering when they would be able to go home, hoping for Hermitmon to speed up so they could find whatever they would find and just get out of here. They couldn’t stay too long, anyway – their families were probably already worried, and they still had chores to do and schoolwork to finish and excuses to make up.

But in the end, more than she was jaded, she was terrified. Even if they weren’t her partners, Patamon and Armadillomon’s distress calls had shaken her to her core, and she desperately needed to see them before she could feel okay going back home. And most of all, she needed to see Hawkmon again, hear his voice, run his feathers through her fingers as they hugged. It had been months – centuries in the Digital World, if Hermitmon was to be believed – since the gates closed, and she never even had the chance to say goodbye. It was more of a quick “I’ll see you tomorrow” that never happened. She didn’t consider herself to be an anxious person, but she was so worried it felt like her limbs were alight with electricity, perhaps a mix of adrenaline and fear, and she had no idea what to do to get it out.

Not when they were moving so _slow_.

She kicked a tree they passed on impulse. It didn’t accomplish much besides making her foot hurt, but at least she did something. She hated feeling so powerless.

“We’re going to find them, you know.”

Yolei jumped at Kari’s voice. She hadn’t realized the other was so close, especially since Yolei had been trailing behind in the first place. She found her face heating up as she realized Kari saw her brief outburst, and suddenly the ground was fascinating, much more than her Jogress partner’s face.

“I know,” she said, if only to sate Kari. In truth, their partners were only half the reason she was so tightly wound, but of course Kari would be more worried about Gatomon. Yolei had inherited the Crest of Love, but even so, Kari always seemed to be more compassionate, more thoughtful, and so much more emotional than her, in a good way. It was something she had always envied, and she had told her as much.

“But it does feel like we’re going awfully slow, doesn’t it?” 

Yolei could hear Kari smiling, and she couldn’t help but laugh. Of course Kari would be able to see through her empty words. Sometimes it seemed like Kari understood her more than she did herself. But she supposed that was what came of becoming Jogress partners.

“Yeah, Kari’s right!” said Davis, several steps in front of them. “Can’t we move any faster? We don’t have time to waste!” 

“Oh, so you were eavesdropping,” Yolei said dryly. 

“Sorry, Yolei, I didn’t realize it was eavesdropping when you’re standing two feet behind me,” he snapped back.

“It’s eavesdropping any time you’re not part of the conversation!”

“What does it matter anyway, huh? We’re all on the same team!”

“Cut it out, you two,” Kari said as Yolei opened her mouth to retort. “Besides, it looks like Hermitmon might have found something.” 

At the same time, T.K.’s voice echoed back to them. “Uh, guys, you might want to check this out.”

Yolei snapped around to face him and dashed forward. “What is it, what is it? Is it what we were looking for?”

“Not exactly,” said Ken, voice strained.

A few more steps brought her even with him, and her jaw dropped at the sight.

The forest ahead of them had been ravaged. It looked like a stampede had come through, knocking over everything in its path, even the sturdiest trees. Small patches of the area had been burned, though thankfully it hadn’t seemed to spread into a massive forest fire. It looked like a war zone. Some sort of battle had certainly taken place here, and it had been recent.

“What happened here?” Kari breathed, hands covering her mouth. Yolei jolted upon realizing she was near tears, and she gave her shoulder what she hoped was a comforting squeeze.

“I’m not quite sure,” said Hermitmon grimly, “but I heard what sounded like a battle last night. There have been rumors of a horde of evil Digimon pursuing a group of others around the continent, and I suppose they ended up here.”

“A group of…” Ken gasped. “Who was being chased? Do you know what Digimon they were?”

Hermitmon shrunk away from his intensity and shook his head. 

“It has to be them.” Davis took a step forward, picking a path through the downed trees. “And if they’re being chased, we have to find them. Which way did they go?”

Yolei pushed herself to follow and began kicking sticks aside, trying to find any sign in the soft dirt of the previous night’s altercation. It proved to be quite an easy task. “There are footprints everywhere. It looks like they all go that way,” she reported, pointing. The others nodded, and they moved to follow the path of destruction. After only a few minutes, they reached what seemed to be the end; there was a clear line where the rest of the forest had been left standing. If their partners were truly involved in this, Yolei dreaded to find out what that might mean.

“Over here!” T.K. called suddenly, from just inside the line. Yolei’s head snapped up to see him staring at the ground, holding back burned bushes. Upon closer inspection, she found that he was staring at footprints that were different from those she had found. These were round and each had three sharp claw marks protruding from them, and they were messy, as if whatever had left them was stumbling. Beside her, she heard Cody choke.

“Armadillomon.” He collapsed to the ground next to the prints. Yolei suddenly felt nauseous.

A few feet away, Kari gasped loudly. “T.K.! T.K., over here!”

T.K. almost tripped in his haste to reach her, and Yolei wasn’t far behind. Kari had uncovered not one, but two different sets of prints, both nearly washed away by weather but still clear enough to send a shard of ice through Yolei’s chest. One was clearly a cat’s paw, spaced out enough to show they were running. The other was a tiny paw with three distinct toe-like marks, and there were four of these prints where the owner had planted their feet.

“Patamon,” T.K. breathed.

“And Gatomon,” said Kari. The two exchanged distressed eye contact.

“So it is them,” Ken said from behind them. Yolei straightened and turned to face him.

“Let’s keep looking,” she said, fighting to keep her voice from trembling. “There have to be clues somewhere that the others were here.”

Ken nodded to her and offered a tiny smile. She flashed him one in return before Davis’s voice reached them.

“Uh, Ken? You might want to come check this out.”

Something in his voice sent a horrible chill down her spine, and judging from the looks on the others’ faces, she wasn’t the only one. She turned to where Davis stood staring at the ground behind them, and one glance down told her all she needed to know.

Ken took a few unsteady steps forward. “Is that… Paildramon?”

“What? But that’s… that should be impossible,” said Yolei, her mind whirring too fast to form a coherent thought.

“Yolei’s right, they shouldn’t be able to digivolve without us here,” said Cody, stepping up beside her.

“And especially not Jogress,” added T.K. “Maybe it’s just something that looks a lot like Paildramon.”

“No, it was them. I can tell.” Davis’s voice sounded far away. Yolei’s eyes bored into the back of his head. 

“I can, too,” Kari said quietly. “I know Gatomon was here. I can feel her.”

 _You can… feel her?_ Yolei’s thoughts came to a screeching halt. _But I can’t… feel anything._

“If I might hazard a guess,” Hermitmon cut in, “and, ah, I know my opinion may not be exactly welcome, but – judging from what we have found so far, it looks as though your friends were running from something, probably the rumored horde of evil Digimon. But this one…” He gestured toward the prints that looked like Paildramon’s. “This one is facing the other way. It looks like this Digimon may have been on the other side of the battle.”

Ken swayed like he had been hit. Yolei’s eyes widened and flicked back down to the large prints in the mud. 

“Are you saying they were fighting each other?” 

Davis’s voice was strained, raised like he was ready to start fighting with Hermitmon, but Yolei couldn’t bring herself to care. She couldn’t pull her eyes away from the big, dragon-esque marks in the mud. She opened her mouth and tried to form a sentence, but the sound wouldn’t come. Only one thought resounded through her head: _Where was Hawkmon?_

And what had even happened here? Why were their partners here? Why was Paildramon fighting them, if it even was Paildramon? And why did Hermitmon know that? She felt her distress shifting, boiling her blood. Her distrust of him flared again alongside red-hot anger, and she decided then that she had had as much as she could take.

A growl forced its way out of her throat, and just like that, her voice returned at full force. She took a step toward Hermitmon, brandishing one of her fists. “Alright, talk! What happened here, Hermitmon? What aren’t you telling us?”

“Yolei –”

She shook Kari’s hand from her shoulder, the contact burning her skin. “Enough with the mystery! What’s going on with the Digital World right now? Why are we here? You have to give us _something_!”

“She’s right.” T.K. stepped up beside her. “Nothing about this is normal. A human turning into a Digimon is not _normal_ , and you can’t expect us to just ignore it and follow you blindly to some destination you won’t even tell us.”

Hermitmon deflated with every accusation, his eyes flicking between the two of them in fear. Yolei wasn’t sure if it was possible for crabs to withdraw into their shells, but he certainly looked ready to, and the thought of him trying to escape their questions only renewed her frustration. But then his eyes turned to the ground, and he moved his claws in front of him as though wringing them.

“You’re right… I– I apologize. I got carried away. When– when was the last time you humans were in the Digital World?” He looked back up as he finished, waiting for an answer.

“We were the ones who defeated MaloMyotismon!” Davis announced proudly. “That was only a few months ago, so what happened in that time to put you guys back in danger?”

“MaloMyotismon? A few… months ago? No, that was –” He blinked and looked down again, his eyes distant. “MaloMyotismon is a name only known from history books. He must have been defeated almost four hundred years ago.”

A shock ran through Yolei like she had been slapped, and her thoughts stalled. Beside her, T.K. swayed, and she heard Kari gasp loudly. Four _hundred_ years? How was that even possible? “That can’t be true. That’s – that’s not possible.” Her voice sounded strangled, far away.

“The humans who defeated him – which must be you – have been reduced to near legends. Many Digimon believe that humans don’t even exist, and the DigiDestined must be a fairy tale.”

“But – how?” Cody said, his voice trembling. “How has it been so long? Our partners –”

“As long as we’re still around, our partners will be,” T.K. cut in. He let out a strained growl, clenching his fists. “It was like this the first time we came to the Digital World. We were trapped here for months, and when we finally got home, it was like no time had passed at all.”

“So you’re saying we’re stuck here?” Yolei squeaked, her anger slowly seeping back into panic.

“I have no idea. We haven’t seen a T.V. since we landed here, and we didn’t check to see if the one we came through was working. But even if they could send us home, even if we were only gone for a minute, another few years would pass here.”

“This is a good thing, right?”

A moment passed as Yolei processed the words, then she turned to Davis like he had two heads. “I’m sorry, what about this situation is good at all?”

He only grinned back at her. “It means we have time! We don’t have to worry about being gone too long, because we’ll go back at the same time we left!”

“That’s… actually a good point,” said Cody.

“You don’t have to sound so surprised.”

Ken tried and failed to stifle a laugh. Yolei found herself smiling at the still-rare sight, her heart unclenching just a bit. If Ken could find something here to laugh about, maybe they weren’t as bad off as she felt they were. Some of the heavy tension dissipated from the air.

T.K. exhaled slowly, sporting the same soft smile as her. “Let’s start with finding our partners. This area isn’t exactly encouraging, so I say we get out of here. What’s next?”

Davis opened his mouth to answer, but he was cut off by a loud crash from the direction they had come from. In an instant, Yolei’s fragile sense of security shattered, and she whipped around to face the other end of the wreckage just as another deafening noise shook the ground beneath them. From the undisturbed foliage bordering the scarred warzone emerged a Woodmon, its eyes already locked on them. It definitely didn’t look happy.

Hermitmon whimpered and scuttled behind Yolei’s leg. “This isn’t good.”

Before she could ask what that meant, the Woodmon spoke. “You are trespassing in the land of us Woodmon. No intruders can be forgiven.”

“We’re just passing through,” Davis said quickly. “We’re leaving right –”

“No exceptions!” Two more Woodmon appeared to flank the first. “If you are here, you will be food!”

“Yeah, definitely not good,” said Yolei, taking a small step back.

The first Woodmon launched itself forward, followed by the two newcomers, and then, to her horror, nearly a dozen more began to flood from the forest in a type of formation. She turned on her heel even before hearing Davis yell for them to run, scooping up Hermitmon as an afterthought, and dashed into the underbrush. The sound of the charging Woodmon followed close behind them, their sheer numbers shaking the trees around them.

“T.K.! You have to spirit evolve!” yelled Hermitmon. 

“I have to what?”

“Use the spirit’s power, you can fight with it!”

“I don’t even know how! Besides, I can’t fight that many!”

Yolei used her shoulder to crash through a few branches, and when she faced forward again, she found herself in a large clearing, almost perfectly circular, the late-afternoon sun beaming down on them, no longer hindered by the thick canopy of the forest. She kept running, grateful for the newly level ground, but came to a screeching halt as the trees before them parted to reveal yet another Woodmon. Yolei’s heart dropped to her feet as she turned and realized that wasn’t the only one – more emerged around them until they were completely surrounded. The six of them pressed together in the center of the clearing, Yolei’s grip tightening around Hermitmon. They had nowhere left to go. They were trapped like rats, which was probably what they were to the Woodmon. Yolei thought she might be sick.

“T.K., can you do that thing again?” Davis asked tensely.

“Well, here goes nothing.”

T.K. flicked his hand out in front of him, and a circle of foreign data sparked up around it. He held up his new digivice, pressed a button on the side, and ran it across the data like a scanner, sending it flying around him, encasing him like a cocoon, warping and changing in size, until it finally dispersed, and in T.K.’s place stood the same Digimon that had done battle with Ebidramon in Hermitmon’s village. Yolei sucked in a breath, the image of Ebidramon disintegrating into data burning through her mind. She turned to look at the Woodmon just as the transformed T.K. dove into battle.

He yanked both swords from the sheaths on his back and slashed at the ones closest to him, whose eyes were blown wide with shock. They were knocked aside with enough force to initiate a domino effect that continued around nearly half the circle. The impact jolted those still standing into action, and with a gravelly war cry, they charged at the defenseless DigiDestined before them. Yolei shrank back to hide behind the others, her arms still full of Hermitmon, and Kari and Ken moved to shield her and Cody as Davis frantically twisted back and forth, searching the ground. Whatever he was looking for, he evidently didn’t find, and soon the Woodmon were almost upon them.

“ _S_ _ea Shot!_ ”

A sphere of water whizzed past Yolei’s shoulder, slamming into the nearest Woodmon and sending spray into those near it, strong enough to send all of them flying back. Yolei turned to see T.K. just as he was tackled from behind by two other Woodmon. He twisted in their grip, punched one off, and slashed his sword at the other. The blade lit up like it had against Ebidramon and the moment it made contact, its target vanished, replaced by tiny pieces of floating data.

“No!”

The word ripped its way from her throat painfully, but T.K. didn’t acknowledge her, only slashing his whip at more of the Woodmon. She stumbled forward a step as she watched them get thrown around, landing on top of each other in a heap, clearly weakened, clearly on death’s door, but neither they nor T.K. showed any sign of backing down. Tears sprang to her eyes.

“Stop! T.K., don’t kill them!”

“Yolei!”

A hand on her arm yanked her back to the others, and she recognized the voice as Kari, but she didn’t turn to look, her eyes glued to the battle before her. T.K. glanced their way again and leapt up, shooting more water over their heads to hold off the Woodmon there, before dashing to another side, trading his whip out for his other sword. She watched in horror as they both lit up and two beams of energy shot from them at the Woodmon, disintegrating the first two they came into contact with and knocking several others on their backs.

“Kari, he’s killing them,” she breathed, the other’s grip on her arm the only thing keeping her from moving forward again.

“I know. I know, but, Yolei –” She pulled her around and grabbed her other arm, leaving Yolei no choice but to look in her eyes. “If he doesn’t, we’ll die.”

The words sent a chill down her spine, but it did nothing to dispel her debilitating guilt.

“Look out!” 

Kari’s head snapped up at Cody’s shout, and she dove to the side, pulling Yolei and Hermitmon with her, just as a Woodmon’s arm came crashing down on top of where they had just been. One glance to the side showed that T.K. was currently wrestling with three of them on his own, and another glance up showed the Woodmon gearing up to attack again.

She wanted to scream but the sound wouldn’t come out. Her body felt it was alight with electric fear, paralyzing her so that she could hardly even breathe, much less move.

“ _No!_ ”

A figure jumped in front of them, merely a silhouette in the sunlight, just as the Woodmon moved to strike.

Before Yolei could react, a blinding light overtook her vision.

//

If he didn’t make a move soon, Davis thought he might be consumed by the ever-growing miasma boiling in his veins.

There wasn’t a lot of moves he could make. They were trapped, exactly according to what must have been the Woodmon's plan, and there wasn’t anything around for the humans to defend themselves with. As much as he hated to admit it, T.K. was their only hope. But even he couldn’t hold off over a dozen Champion level Digimon on his own, and his momentum was quickly wearing off. If things continued like this, they would lose.

They were going to lose.

He couldn’t let another member of his team get hurt. It didn’t matter that T.K. had come back; he couldn’t let it happen again. It was his duty not only as their leader, as the one who had been entrusted the hefty torch from Tai, but as their friend and teammate. As he saw the Woodmon moving in around them to strike, he swore to himself he wouldn’t fail them again.

Even if he had to take the blow himself.

“ _No!_ ”

Somewhere deep in his mind, he knew this wasn’t the best idea. If they survived, the others would berate him endlessly for putting himself in harm’s way, and even if they somehow pulled through, he wouldn’t be in any sort of shape to protect them further. But he couldn’t bring himself to care. This was all he could think of, anyway. 

The Woodmon’s attack didn’t falter. Davis clenched his eyes shut and braced for impact.

It never came.

Instead, an offensively bright light pierced through his closed eyelids. He shifted to cover his eyes with his arms, but it didn’t help, and with a sharp stab of hope he was suddenly reminded of the moment Veemon first digivolved into Magnamon. His eyes snapped open at the memory, but of course, it wasn’t his partner descending in front of him. What greeted him instead was a much stranger sight.

Piercing the ground before him was what appeared to be a ray of pure sunlight. The Woodmon who had been poised to attack him seconds ago was now lying on its back several feet away, stunned, and the others who were approaching the humans had frozen, staring apprehensively at what they must have perceived as an attack against them. Davis couldn’t be quite sure it wasn’t, but honestly, he was at a complete loss. Unless the laws of nature were different in the Digital World, he didn’t think it was normal for the sun itself to launch an attack against something on the surface. Yeah, that didn’t seem likely at all.

Then he noticed a stream of data within the beam of light, descending from the sky to begin forming a shape in front of him. And he knew exactly what was happening.

Behind him, Hermitmon gasped. “That’s – could it be –”

The shape finished forming, and it looked like the bust of an action figure, muscled and sporting a massive axe. The moment the final piece of data settled into place, the beam of light burst, and an invisible wind whipped at Davis’s clothes. He hardly noticed it, his eyes trained on the figure it left behind.

It was whispering to him. He couldn’t explain how he knew, since he couldn’t actually hear anything, but it was like every fear he’d had when he jumped in front of the Woodmon’s attack was being erased. The longer he stared at it – and he couldn’t pull his eyes away even if he wanted to – he was flooded with renewed strength, his damaged confidence being repaired by the second, and he knew it was the figure’s doing.

He knew what it was. He knew exactly what was happening.

“A spirit?” he breathed, thunderstruck all the same. “It’s – for me?”

Behind him, someone said something, but he couldn’t hear them. His response came from the spirit before him as he was overtaken by a wave of reassurance so forcefully he almost collapsed, and he understood, and he knew that it understood, too.

It _was_ his spirit. This was how he would fulfill his duty to his friends.

A high-pitched whine filled the air, snapping him out of his reverie as he fumbled for his digivice. The moment it was free of his pocket, it yanked itself toward the spirit, nearly causing him to drop it, and a beam of light formed between the two, pulling the spirit into his screen. Energy tingled in his fingertips, racing through his body until it felt like he was vibrating, and he turned the device to face him as it was enveloped in a golden light, dissolving away to reveal a completely different model. It was both longer and wider, more like a rectangle than an oval, but with the same screen. It looked exactly like T.K.’s, except the grip was the same vibrant blue as his D-3 and the centerpiece was black. The screen was flashing a symbol he didn’t recognize, but at least that noise had disappeared.

Energy continued to flood him as his body began to move on its own. His free hand flicked out in front of him, and a ring of foreign data circled around it. His other hand pressed a button on his digivice, activating something like a scanner on the top, and held it against the data. Sparks flew where the two connected.

“Execute!” he heard himself shout. “Spirit evolution!”

The data pulsed in response, and his hand holding his digivice ran the scanner quickly across the data, sending strips of it to cocoon around him. It surrounded him completely almost immediately.

The ground disappeared under him, and something like wind ripped into him, ripping his skin away, literally tearing him apart. He felt his body fall away into pieces of data, and whatever was left behind convulsed as if barely keeping its form. His senses were dulled, but he could barely make out data still swirling around him, felt it brushing against him. Suddenly he couldn’t breathe, and he panicked, convinced he had just walked blindly into a trap. Something appeared at his front and back like walls and pressed against him, stealing away what little air he had left, and he felt his data rearranging, reattaching to him, even as the pressure continued to increase, warping him, changing him completely, and then the walls seemed to meet in the middle and vanished.

And he could breathe again.

He took a gasping breath, power surging through his veins like nothing he had ever known, setting him alight as though he was on fire. The ground reappeared under him at the same time his hand wrapped around the handle of something, and he looked down to find himself clutching a huge, brilliant golden axe. He had never held a weapon like it in his life, yet something about it was familiar, and he knew he would be able to handle it perfectly. The strength coursing through his every cell told him that. He knew he could fight back now.

His name was no longer Davis Motomiya. Now, he was Rhitmon.

The data that had encased him suddenly vanished, and the forest reappeared around him, bringing with it the many enemies he faced. The Woodmon before him gaped openly, frozen in their tracks, and he didn’t need to turn around to know his friends were the same. A giddy laugh bubbled up his throat. 

His hand tightened around his axe, and he charged forward.

With one swing, the closest three Woodmon vanished, including the one who had tried to attack Yolei and Kari prior. The sight flooded him with a sick satisfaction that was almost instantly replaced by crippling guilt and regret, and he stumbled. 

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

Another Woodmon jumped him from the side before he could finish his thought, and he moved on instinct, twisting sharply to throw it off. His eyes followed it, then flicked behind it, only to discover he’d just thrown it toward his friends. His blood ran cold. He moved to dash after it, but just as it found its feet, a silver sword embedded itself in its side, felling it again. The transformed T.K. appeared next to it and retrieved his sword as the Digimon burst into data. He regarded Rhitmon with a mix of disbelief, relief, and suspicion.

“Davis?”

He definitely looked worse for the wear, Rhitmon noted. There were scrapes and scuffs all over his armor, and he was panting heavily as though ready to collapse any second. That was probably to be expected after facing both Ebidramon and so many Woodmon all on his own. Rhitmon grinned in a way he hoped was reassuring and nodded. His gaze switched to the humans, their friends, huddled on the ground, staring at them in apprehension, and his heart clenched. He gestured to them and turned to T.K. “You protect them.”

T.K. blinked in surprise, but Rhitmon didn’t give him a chance to respond before he looked away. A spark ignited in his veins as his eyes landed on the Woodmon still pouring in from the forest, each one glaring at him venomously. His grip tightened on his axe again, determination coursing through him. He wouldn’t let them hurt his friends, no matter what it took. He wouldn’t hesitate anymore. With that thought in mind, he dashed forward again. 

He swung his axe wide, deleting two more Woodmon and knocking several more down. He whipped to the side before he could be blindsided again and attacked with his fists, sending another enemy flying back into the forest. He stared after it in surprise before glancing at his hands in surprise, only just noticing how big his arms were now. Apparently, he was a lot stronger than he thought he was. 

A war cry caught his attention, and his eyes snapped up to find an incoming wave of way too many Woodmon attacking him at once. There was no way he could handle them all, he realized with a grimace. Shouldn’t there be an attack he could use at a time like this? It wasn’t like he’d been given a manual to go with this evolution.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, his instincts took over again. He wound up his arm before swinging his axe in a long horizontal line in front of him, a trail of light following behind it. “ _Daybreak!_ ”

The trail of light solidified, widened, and shot forward, sharp as a blade, and slammed into the wave of Woodmon, deleting several and shoving the rest against the treeline, where they slumped limply to the ground. Rhitmon shouldered his axe with a relieved sigh and turned to face the center of the clearing just as T.K. knocked another Woodmon back with his whip. The two made eye contact, and Rhitmon realized with a start that the other was barely holding onto his evolution. He jogged up to them quickly. “We have to get out of here.”

T.K. nodded without protest, and the two turned to face their friends. T.K. leaned down to pick up Kari, Yolei, and Hermitmon, leaving Rhitmon to do the same with Ken and Cody. He hesitated for only a moment before kneeling, suddenly realizing he was almost twice as tall as they were, and reaching forward. They paled in unison.

“Uh, Davis, there’s no need to –” said Cody, holding out a hand defensively.

“Really, we can just walk, you don’t –” Ken fumbled, nearly tripping as he stepped back.

“There’s no time for that,” Rhitmon insisted. Movement caught his eye, and his head snapped up, only to realize that a fresh group of Woodmon was appearing from the trees. _How could there possibly be even more?_ he thought frantically, turning back to Cody and Ken. “Sorry, but we have to go.”

He scooped them up, ignoring their complaints, and stood just as T.K. did the same, and the two nodded at each other before dashing in the direction opposite the Woodmon. Holding his friends like this was definitely awkward, but he tried to convince himself it could be much worse. His evolution meant he was taller, stronger, _and_ faster, which he had to be grateful for, because if he wasn’t, this wouldn’t even be possible. They’d still just be sitting ducks. He reminded himself of that repeatedly as he followed T.K. through the trees. They didn’t stop until they finally broke the edge of the forest, long after they lost the Woodmon, at the mouth of a long path that crossed between two jagged mountains. Rhitmon guessed that Hermitmon had led them here, a suspicion that was as good as confirmed when the Digimon jabbed a claw in the direction of a cave. He stepped up beside T.K. just in time to hear Hermitmon say, “It will be good shelter for the night. We are beyond the territory of the Woodmon now, but after being attacked by so many wild Digimon in one day, we can’t be too careful.”

“We’ll be safe in there?” Yolei said, her voice trembling. “Are you sure?”

“Anything is better than that forest,” muttered Cody.

As if in answer, T.K. leaned forward to place his precious cargo on the ground, and the moment they were steady, he was enveloped by data. It dissipated to reveal the familiar human form of T.K. Takaishi, but his body went limp, and he collapsed onto his back, breathing hard. Kari yelped and dropped to the ground by his side. Rhitmon froze, trying to fight down panic, but T.K. opened his eyes only a second later.

“Is – is everyone okay?” he wheezed. Kari nodded vigorously, face breaking out into a smile even as her tears started to fall.

Rhitmon sighed in relief at the sight and decided to leave it to her, finally kneeling down to release Cody and Ken. He wasn’t sure how to devolve, but he tried to focus on the power that wasn’t his pulsing through him and release it. Somehow, miraculously, it worked, and the same strips of foreign data as before appeared around him. The strange wind tore apart his skin again, not quite painful but certainly one of the weirdest things he’d ever felt, before data started to return to him. He recognized it as his own body even before it finished forming. The cocoon around him burst, and he quickly looked down at his open palms. He never thought he’d be so happy to see his own hands.

“Davis?” Ken’s voice came from beside him. “Are you alright?”

Davis frowned and turned to face him. “I should be asking you that. None of them hurt you guys, right?”

Ken shook his head. The tension drained from Davis’s whole body, and he slumped forward, his forehead coming to rest on Ken’s shoulder. Ken started at the contact, but he made no move to push him off. With exhaustion suddenly flooding his whole body, Davis was grateful for that.

“Guys, come on,” Cody said. Davis could hear the frown in his voice. “We have to take shelter in the cave before something attacks us again. We won’t be able to fight back.”

Davis’s head popped up from Ken’s shoulder. “What do you mean, we won’t be able to fight back? We have this now!” He brandished his new digivice in Cody’s face, grinning widely. “As long as I have this, no other Digimon will stand a chance!”

“I think you should rest before you try to do that again,” Ken cut in. Davis opened his mouth to respond, but Ken wasn’t looking at him. He followed his gaze to where Kari and Yolei were pulling T.K. to his feet. With their support, they finally got him to stand, but he seemed ready to collapse again if they let him go. Davis closed his mouth.

“We have to take shelter,” Cody said again. Davis and Ken glanced at each other before nodding to him, and the three of them started toward the entrance of the cave.

Davis knew Ken was right. All of them were exhausted, even those who hadn’t found spirits, so their first priority was to rest. But even so, if something were to attack them during the night, he wouldn’t let fatigue get in his way. His spirit, Rhitmon, had given him the ability to protect his friends, and he refused to let it go to waste. Their encounter with the Woodmon had been far too close for comfort; he couldn’t let them get in a situation like that again.

But he couldn’t dwell on that now, either, he reminded himself. His fist clenched around his digivice, the grip biting into his skin, grounding him. For now, they weren’t in danger. He needed to be their friend and their leader before anything else. They still needed to find their partners, and hopefully they would find a way home, too. Those would all be problems for tomorrow. For now, they needed to rest. It had been a long, grueling day.

At least everyone was safe. Anxious and totally spent, but safe.

For now, that would have to be enough.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermitmon spills the beans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i meant to post this about a week ago, but, uh. that didn't happen
> 
> this one's shorter than usual, but some answers finally come out. i hope you enjoy!

The cave was a less-than-ideal resting place, and certainly more than a little creepy. The rock along the walls and floor was moist and cold to the touch, and there were multiple tunnels branching from the back wall, all ending in darkness. Ken supposed he shouldn’t complain. It was unnerving, and he had never slept somewhere like this before, but it was shelter. And if there was one thing he needed right now, it was a sense of security, regardless how fragile.

The sun was rapidly setting, but it was still high enough to light up most of the cave. Yolei and Kari helped T.K. to a resting place against the wall, where he gratefully collapsed. Ken opted to sit near him, Davis following suit, and soon the seven of them were settling on the floor in a rough circle. Ken frowned down at the cold stone. “Shouldn’t we start a fire or something?”

The others glanced at him as realization dawned in their eyes.

“I’ll go get some firewood from the forest,” Cody offered, standing.

“Oh, I’ll come with you!” said Yolei. As the two vanished from his sight, Ken fought to keep his breath under control, beating down paranoia.

“It’s been a while since we’ve spent the night in the Digital World,” T.K. said with a laugh. “Four years ago, we had to camp out every night. And find our own food.”

Almost on cue, Davis’s stomach let out a pronounced growl. Ken suppressed a snort, but T.K. laughed aloud. Davis glared at him. “Speaking of food, how are we going to find it? I don’t think we’ll get lucky enough to run into Digi-Chinatown again.”

“We’ll probably find random sources as we go, or we can always go back to the sea and fish.”

“There is a village not too far from here,” Hermitmon cut in. “It’s on our way, and they’re very kind Digimon. They’ll certainly offer us something.”

“But that means we’ll have to wait until _tomorrow_!”

“There isn’t much else we can do, Davis,” Kari said gently. “We can’t just go home and get food whenever we want.”

“Well, yeah, I know, but…”

Davis’s expression shifted down, and Ken panicked. He placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed in a way he hoped was reassuring. Davis looked up at him, surprised, but then he smiled. Ken smiled back to avoid sighing in relief.

A moment later, Yolei and Cody reappeared in the cave entrance, both carting armfuls of sticks, and Ken’s heart finally slowed to a less painful pace. They deposited them in the center of their loose circle and Yolei set about starting the actual fire, claiming she’d learned how from television. 

“It’s a shame we don’t have any fire Digimon around to help,” Kari remarked. “That would make this easy.”

“Oh, speaking of that!” Hermitmon said, straightening. He reached behind him to the shell attached to his back and, to Ken’s surprise and mild horror, flipped it open like a basket, withdrawing the book from his village.

“ _That’s_ where you put that?” said Davis, taking the words right from Ken’s mouth.

Hermitmon glanced at him in confusion. “Where did you think I put it?”

Wisely, he chose not to answer.

Hermitmon turned back to the book and began flipping through it. “This is an ancient book, written by a historian who accompanied a different group of humans who could harness the spirits’ power. It is –”

“Wait, wait, you’re saying there were other humans before us?” T.K. interrupted. 

Kari gasped and locked eyes with him. “From before we came here four years ago?”

Hermitmon glanced between them, frowning. “I suppose so. They were part of a more ancient Digital World, and they were each chosen to wield the power of one of the spirits of the Ten Legendary Warriors. However…” He found the page he wanted and laid the book on the ground, displaying its contents. “Those spirits were nothing like the ones you humans have found so far.”

Ken leaned forward. It was difficult to see in the fading light, but the pages were filled with diagrams of a small, feminine Digimon. The symbol for water was drawn boldly in one corner.

“This is the Spirit of Water,” Hermitmon continued. “I believe that the spirit that T.K. found most likely represents this element, but obviously, it does not resemble the ancient spirit.”

Sparks flew on the ground in front of Yolei, and with a triumphant cry of “I got it!” she placed a pair of smoking sticks in the center. She leaned in to blow on it, and suddenly there was a fire before them. Ken breathed a sigh and melted into the tiny bit of heat, grateful for the light. 

T.K. leaned toward the book, frowning at the page. “That one’s name is Ranamon? It’s definitely not the same, then. My spirit is called Kishimon.”

Ken blinked in surprise. So they did have names.

“That’s the spirit’s name? How do you know?” Hermitmon’s eyes sparkled, the words coming out in a rush.

“When I evolved, I just knew.”

“It was the same for me,” Davis added. “Mine is Rhitmon.”

“Fascinating,” Hermitmon whispered. He looked back to the book. “There is nothing on those two Digimon in this book, but I am sure they must be related to the Legendary Warrior spirits somehow. Our destination is somewhere I hope will be able to shed light on this mystery.”

“Actually, before we get to that,” Yolei interrupted, “you still owe us more of an explanation about the Digital World.”

“She’s right,” Cody piped up. “What happened since we left?”

Hermitmon sighed slowly and closed the book. “You humans were the ones who defeated MaloMyotismon four hundred years ago, correct? I was not around for that, but I will tell you what I know.”

Ken perked up at his tone. It didn’t exactly sound positive, but it promised answers. 

“We enjoyed several decades of peace after his defeat. However, another Digimon rose from a dark part of the Digital World. Together with his four closest companions, the Four Horsemen, he began a destructive conquest of the land, which quickly succeeded. They swept across the world at terrifying speed, swaying many Digimon to their side and subduing those who fought back. They were simply too powerful; we could do nothing to stop them.

“His name,” he continued, his voice breaking, “is Dracodeimon.”

A shard of ice pierced Ken’s chest, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe.

“Daemon?” Davis was shouting, but his voice sounded far away. “Are you saying Daemon’s back?!”

A series of images flashed through Ken’s mind, quicker than he could make sense of them, but charged emotions flooded him with every new scene. There was a dark van, a huddle of children, a deep voice; a city street, their Digimon falling again and again, hopelessness; his digivice raised above him, pain, pain, pain, and his friends’ voices; and, over and over again, a beach, a dark horizon, waves lapping softly at his feet, crashing catastrophically through his mind. He raised his hands to his ears, trying to block out the noise, trying to forget the voice whose menacing laughter echoed back at them, at _him_ , but then –

“Daemon?” Hermitmon repeated. “Is that another Digimon you humans fought?”

“He was, but we sealed him away in the Dark Ocean!” Yolei cried. “Did he really find a way back?”

“The Dark Ocean? No, there hasn’t been any contact with that world since before Dracodeimon took power. He sealed off all passage between worlds, including your world. To be frank, I have no idea how you all got here.”

_It isn’t him. It isn’t him. You aren’t going back._

Ken took a deep, trembling breath. _He’s gone. You made sure of that. We all did._

The sound of the waves persisted, but it was fading now. Daemon’s taunting voice continued to reverberate in his bones, but it was no longer alone: the voices of his friends ripped through the noise like paper, the ghosts of their hands clamped against his burning through his skin. It had been months since the day they banished Daemon, and the Dark Ocean had never fully released its hold on him, no matter how hard he pushed back.

But he was stronger now. And most importantly, he was no longer alone.

He opened his eyes.

Davis was staring at him worriedly, one hand aloft near Ken’s shoulder. He didn’t say anything, and Ken panicked for a brief second, certain he’d missed something, but Davis’s shoulders collapsed in relief the moment they made eye contact. “Are you okay?”

Ken nodded quickly. “I’m fine. Really, I am,” he added, the words falling flat even to himself. “Thanks for worrying, though.” He offered a smile, and the ease with which it came surprised him.

“Was it the Dark Ocean?” said Kari. Ken nodded, and she frowned. “That’s strange. Your body never started to fade.”

“As I said, there has been no contact with that world for centuries,” said Hermitmon.

“Then let’s keep it that way,” Davis said firmly. He turned back to face Ken and continued, “I’m not gonna let that place hurt you again, you or Kari. I promise.”

A hefty promise, but if anyone could keep it, it would be Davis. Ken found his smile widening unbidden, and he nodded in response, his heart swelling. Davis smiled back, and it was like looking directly at the sun.

“If it isn’t Daemon, then who is it?” Yolei said to Hermitmon. Ken tore his eyes away from Davis’s smile and felt the loss immediately. “And these so-called Four Horsemen, who are they? Are they really that strong?”

Hermitmon placed a claw to his chin. “Not much is known about Dracodeimon himself, other than that he is a very ancient Digimon, and he holds unfathomable power. As for the Horsemen, many rumors fly, but I have no idea what the truth is. One of them is nearly a complete mystery; since the initial conquest of the world, he has never been seen. Two others often appear to wreak havoc and strike fear into the public. The fourth is also virtually unknown, but he has been rumored to lead battles and take control of Digimon through hypnosis.”

“Hypnosis, huh?” T.K. scowled. The image of a jet-black tower flashed through Ken’s mind, and he flinched, placing a hand against his head. Davis glanced his way but didn’t comment, to Ken’s relief.

“Do you think he’s the one that attacked our partners?” Kari said quietly.

Cody pulled out his digivice, grimacing at the screen. “That would mean that Armadillomon, Patamon, and Gatomon were the last stand. But now…”

“He’s even strong enough to control Paildramon,” Ken spoke up. Dread settled firmly in his stomach, and he was starting to feel cold again. “Does that mean he could force the others to Jogress, too?”

Hermitmon shook his head. “There are many powerful Digimon under his control, but from what I have heard, they were all captured like that. If he can force your friends to digivolve, they must be a special case.”

Ken frowned. That wasn’t exactly reassuring.

“What about Hawkmon?” Yolei’s voice shook on the name, and Ken’s heart leapt. She was hunched over her own digivice, knuckles clenched white. “There hasn’t been any sign of him since we got here, not even in the forest. What if he –”

“He didn’t.”

Ken’s eyes flicked over to T.K. like he was watching a soccer match. A chill ran down his spine at the clouds shrouding the other’s eyes.

“If something happened, you would know. Trust me.” His voice was steady, but everything else about his posture was so incredibly wrong, so incredibly _familiar_. Ken understood immediately, and his heart ached, at both his own memory and the implication that T.K. had a similar one. He found himself nodding along with the words, his digivice weighing heavily in his pocket.

Yolei regarded them both, eyes unfocused, and nodded slowly. She wasn’t convinced.

Something unsightly gnawed at Ken’s stomach. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. Yolei was never supposed to be the one so dreadfully forlorn; T.K. should never be so bitter, or Davis wound so tightly. It had only been a day, yet the changes in his friends unnerved him. He still trusted them, of course, with his life, and he would give his own for them if the need arose. But the air blowing lazily through the cave was alien to him. This was not the Digital World he knew, the one he had once known like his own palm, the one in which Wormmon was always, always by his side. A horrible voice whispered through his mind that these were not the friends he once knew, either, the beings of pure light who had worked together to drown out his darkness. He almost caught himself believing it.

And he hated himself for it.

This wasn’t the time to lose faith. He couldn’t falter here, not while Wormmon was still out there. Even if he ended up alone again, even if the ghosts of yesterday’s friends never returned, he refused to give up. He owed Wormmon that. He owed him so, so much more than that, but this was all he was capable of for now. He owed it to Wormmon to save him from the fate he couldn’t be there to protect him from in the first place.

The beast tore a chasm through Ken’s gut, and he felt his stomach fall through it. 

“It’s been a long day,” Kari said quietly, breaking the silence that had begun to suffocate him. “We should all get some rest for now. We’ll need it if tomorrow turns out to be the same as today.”

Ken’s heart clenched at the idea, and he nodded. “I agree. Especially you, Davis and T.K.”

The night heaved a sigh at the words. They split up the watch: Hermitmon first, then Yolei, and Kari, and Cody. T.K. watched them briefly with a placid smile, but his eyes were the first to fall shut, and Davis wasn’t far behind. Ken shifted toward the wall and curled up, his back to the fire, staring out at the unforgiving darkness.

He couldn’t shake his own doubts. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t free himself of the plague ripping through his heart, couldn’t stay the trembling hands holding the line connecting him to his friends. Sleep felt like an acquiescence; his dreams would only torment him further, and he already felt like he was losing his grip. 

But there would be new light tomorrow, of only this he allowed himself to be certain. There had to be, because there usually was, and he was terrified of what it would mean if there wasn’t.

So he let himself fall.

**Author's Note:**

> constructive criticism is much appreciated. if you enjoy reading this, please let me know, because comments i get here will help keep me going.
> 
> thanks for reading!


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